In California, one part-time faculty has decided to break away from their current union to achieve quality pay, healthcare benefits, and adequate representation on their own. That decision has created a lot of attention.  

United Faculty (UF) has represented Grossmont College in El Cajon and Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego since the 1970s, but not for much longer if 1,202 part-timers (395 FTE) have their say.  This independent wall-to-wall unit represents the entire faculty, but many part-timers feel their needs have not been met, despite outnumbering full-time faculty almost 4:1.

“Part-timers have had to make special requests to speak at union meetings and then have been asked to leave and treated as though we were intruding even though we are union members,” cites David Milroy, part-time French instructor and Part-time Representative to the Academic Senate at Grossmont. The part-timers filed a severance petition in July 2006, submitting proof of support from over 50 percent of the part-time faculty.  The intended part-timers’ union would affiliate with the Community College Association (CCA), a 43-chapter affiliate of the California Teachers Association (CTA). Since that announcement, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) joined in the ring.

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